Luv asparagus, eat it fairly often in and out of season, usually steam it lighly, have never noticed my pee smelling oddly after eating it - AND here is one way to serve and eat it none of you has mentioned = after all these years of enjoying asparagus someone asked me "have you ever tried it raw?" and my answer was no, but now I have and it is a GREAT raw veggie served alongside broccolli and cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, carrot and celery sticks etc. YUMLove, Betty LouP.S. AND, since my dog Moonbeam loves veggies, raw or cooked raw asparagus makes a great treat for her - just not too much all at once, too much fiber. She loves it!

I eat it raw out of the patch all the time, Betty Lou! I figure the asparagus picker ought to get the choicest tender spears to eat right on the spot! This is an interesting little paragraph from WebMD. It appears some people don't have the gene that lets you smell it!

I used to make pickled asparagus. Marinated it in Italian salad dressing and a few other 'secret' ingredients. Put in fridge overnight and YUM the next day. Now I'm hungry. Going out to buy some asparagus!

Choose a MILD Italian clear dressing. I like to use powered mix so I can regulate the vinegar and oil amounts. Add just a bit of Malt Vinegar (the kind you use on fish and chips), a dollop of Olive Oil, some parsley flakes (or FRESH if you have it). Blanch the asparagus if it's too crunchy (I like it crunchy) and put in a dish and cover with all the secret stuff. Let stand overnight in the fridge. Then drain the next day and enjoy. I like to grind a tiny bit of fresh pepper over it before munching. AND if you are really into cheese, a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top is awesome.

You can also do this on a quick basis with canned asparagus, but it has to be the BEST brand available or it just doesn't taste good. Drain first then add all the good stuff.

I think - after munching on my first spears right out of the ground - that's the first way I'm going to do some asparagus, Sorta. That sounds so, so good. Like I said, we usually get about 20 lbs of asparagus from our patch every year and you have to get creative in how you fix it.

In Germany, "spargel" is grown under mounds of sand and is white. They have an entire spargel season complete with spargelfests. If you are very, very lucky, you know a spargel grower and can get it fresh. Our German family sends us pictures of their first spargle meal every spring which is usually served with boiled potatoes and bratwurst.

Well, I am so delighted to have 'found' this thread - was out and about with a neighbor yesterday, stopped at a grocery while she was in pet store and I spotted asparagus, nice thin stalked spears, for $1.99/lb, bought 2 pounds and from all this discussion decided to try this = washed spears (of course) and snapped off tough stems, threw away a few too spongy to snap and saved rest for dog treats, she can chew the tough stem where I can't - placed all 2 pounds into aluminum foil and sprinkled with olive oil, several whole cloves of garlic, sealed it up and placed it into my 350 degree oven alongside my foil wrapped pork tenderloin roast and baked it all for an hour. Was it ever GREAT! not too mushy, smelled like heaven and was so good there isn't but 2 or 3 spears left - son ate two helpings alongside my turnips/onions/garlic and chopped greens with whole wheat noodles, garlic, tomato sauce and Pace Picante sauce thrown in...had some BBQ sauce on the pork. Great meal and easy to make, no pots to wash.Love, BJ